Mad Men: A Musical Journey

Well. I just finished Mad Men.. and you may guess that I cannot continue to my life normally anymore :) Before rewatching it, I have to prepare a post dedicated to the soundtracks.. because come on, I had to do it. Other than the stories, characters, true advertising stories, costumes, attitudes (is there anything left?); the usage of music was extraordinary. It took us to the real environment of music industry of that time with smooth and not obvious references (Mad Men is all about this, after all). I strongly recommend to listen and learn the every piece of Mad Men by clicking here, but here is my favorite moments. 

Classical Music Usage

Mozart - The Marriage of Figaro
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​When the episode's name is Mozart's famous opera 'The Marriage of Opera', you already get excited :) We see the pieces from the opera from the radio during the Sally's birthday party. we hear the duet 'Cinque, Dieci, Venti' from Act 1 and the aria 'Voi Che Sapete Che Cosa È Amor' from Act 2. As it can be just coincidence to hear it from the radio, I think its being the title of the episode has a deeper meaning. In Sally's party, the focus was Helen Bishop, an outsider due to her failed marriage. We see Betty critisizing her, but we know that she will get divorced later, also. So, everything that seems okay in The Barber of the Seville will be turn around differently in The Marriage of Figaro. It can be one of the first hints of the failure of Don and Betty's marriage. 
Background: The Marriage of The Figaro (Mozart) is a continuation of the story of the Rossini's famous opera The Barber of The Seville. The male main character falls in love and saves her from her protegee in The Barber of The Seville, tries to sleep with his housemaid in The Marriage of Figaro.

​Story Integrated Moments

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Chubby Checker - The Twist 

The Twist.. It was such a movement that everybody really danced to dance. And really enjoy it. I wish I was born at those times.. I can't believe people dancing and complimenting a beat rather than these lovely m u s i c. And when someone put this song on the jukebox during a party, you can see everybody screaming and dancing immeadiately. And we see Peggy, who was a just another secretary believe it or not- approaching Pete. 
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​The Beatles - Do You Want to Know A Secret ?

A show that is based on real events couldn't have survive if it didn't touch upon The Beatles and its importance in 60s. Don gets her daughter Sally a Beatles tickets and when he tells her daughter on the phone she immediately strats to scream. This is not exaggurated, this was the Beatlemania. Girls -even boys- loved Beatles so much, their concert was impossible to hear due to screamings. Eventually, Beatles stoped doing tours and concerts because they couldn't hear themselves while they were playing and they said they couldn't improve that way. This was a real problem and Sally's reaction to this new along with Don's insistance to get the tickets were truely genuine. 

After a Beatles reference. we can only expect the episode to close by a Beatles song. In S4 E10: Hands and Knees Don is scared about his secret identity to come out. He shares his secret with Dr. Faye. At the end of the episode, although the danger disappears eventually, we see him unhappy having shared his secret with Dr. Faye. While she was offering some help, we hear Beatles's 'Do you want to know a secret' in the background while he gazes Megan from the door.  Dr. Faye is now a secret holder and Don already found his new target. So, Dr. Faye should have really thought through is she wanted to know this secret.

The Beatles - I Wanna Hold Your Hand

When we see a flashback of Don and Megan return from California with the kids in S5 E6, Don whistles the song. Megan, suprised, tell him that she thought he hated the song because apparently he made Sally stopped singing that song. It makes sense that Don not liking the first hits of The Beatles, but still caught himself whistling. However, Don will lose track of the progress of The Beatles, and The Beatles will become too sophisticated for Don later. 

The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows

In S5 E8: Lady Lazarus, Megan quits advertising to become an actress and Don is not happy about it. He knows that this is a change that will affect their relationship. Before Megan goes to the acting class, she gives him the latest Beatles record since Don said that he can't keep up with the music. This song should schock Don if he left things with 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand'. When Jon Lennon sings that 'Turn off your mind relax and float down stream; It is not dying, it is not dying'; Don sits into his chair and tries to relax. Than we see our other cast: Peggy: sharing a weed with Stan, Pete, staring at his one night stand and Megan in acting class. Than we see Don again, but something about the song that is not right disturbs Don. He gets up and close the recordplayer. He couldn't keep up with it. He either left behing and felt old; or he couldn't relax. Because the song was not really about drugs, it was from a meditation book actually that Jon took the beginning lines. It was avant garde. It became too much for Don. And than, one of the greatest momentd of the Mad Men. Music stops, but we wanted to hear more since it has been left so incomplete. We hear Don's footsteps. Than, end credits. And we hear the music again, not from where we left. We hear the last sentence we hear and than go on. Satisfaction in its greatest..

And.. Mad Men payed $250.000 for the song to be featured here. Worth the pay, don't you thing ?

​Jessica Pare - Zou Bisou Bisou

Well, you can't write about the music and Mad Men and left out Zou Bisou Bisou. They will murder you. Although a friend of mine (hello Salim) describes the performance 'extraordinary', I was completely on Don's side on this. I couldn't watch because I felt so embaressed for her (hello those who knew me). It was overly sexy, and I found it so factitious. Although Jessica Pare was impressive, you could hear her amateur voice sometimes, and that makes it more perfect for the show. But I couldn't watch it. Because I know how hard it is for Don to watch. However, it is just the point. The way I am feeling is the proof of how successful this scene is. Unforgettable, for sure.

​Robert Morse - The Best Things In Life Are Free

Bert's goodbye to Don.. The most reasonable man in the show. Don could be only impressed by his advice but he didn't give him one when he's alive. So Don had to imagine..

​''Don my boy''

​In Between

​Don McLean - Babylon

Don's in pain.. We see the woman in Don's life: Midge, Rachel, Betty and Sally.. We see Joan and Roger at the sadest part of their date as if we are remembering..
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The Spencer Davis Group - I'm A Man

We know you are a mess Don. But you really managed to fool us, don't you ? This song, again accompanied with great cinematography, we nearly envy Don. Well, it doesn't last long when we see Megan in control after all.
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Rolling Stones - ​​(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Don is swimming while we see flashforward moments of him writing his diary about his regrets. When he was in the locker room trying to catch his breath, we hear the Satisfaction first diageticly from a speaker, than turns into a non-diegetic sound when Don steps outside all suited up. We see him outside the hotel and hear the lines of his diary accompanied by the music that really sums it up how Don feels about life. 

Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is ?

We see Don dictating a cast to act with a fur, although we don't know that's a casting in the beginning (but it's very predictable). The song is a perfect match for Don. Is there anything else for him ? Or is that all there is ?
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​End Credits

Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

At the end of the season 1 finale, Don imagines to find Betty and the children just before they leave for Thanksgiving and joining them. But we are cut from the imagination and set back to reality when Don enters an empty home. He just sits there with disappointment when we hear Bob Dylan. The show punishing Don, very very hard with this song.

Well it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe 
If'n you don't know by now

The Nashville Teens - Tobacco Road

S4 E1: Don who doesn't like to talk about himself, surprisingly, screws up in an interview with a magazine and loses a new account. Now, he tried to make things right, he swallow his pride and exaggurate a story for PR. He's very cool and he's telling the truth in a way. We hear a music that reassures it. But, did the lyrics remind you of somebody ?

I was born in a bunk
Mama died and my daddy got drunk
Left me here to die alone
In the middle of Tobacco Road
..
Gonna leave, get a job
With the help and the grace from above
Save some money, get rich and old
Bring it back to Tobacco Road

Sonny and Cher - I Got You Babe

Don says Betty that he's getting married. We see him and Megan in the bed, she sleeps when Don seems awake. We start to hear the tune. Well, thinking in retrospect, it's kind of irony, isn't it ? Everybody who judges them, seem to have a point  after all.

They say we're young and we don't know
We won't find out until we grow
Well I don't know if all that's true

​Dusty Springfield - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

SCDP runs an ad for being open to diversity to amuse Y&R and get a lot of applications in S5 E2. While Lane collecting resumes from African-American secreteries, the tune says 'You don't have to say you love me, just be close at hand'.
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The Kinks - You Really Got Me

Peggy is leaving SCDP and moving forward. We know how hard it is for her. But we also know that she made the right decision when she looks with pride before her final step from SCDP. And we hear the famious riff of You Really Got Me.

Girl, you really got me now
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin'

But she sure does
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Nancy Sinatra - You Only Live Twice

OW. Really thinking how many times I can rewatch it, right know. One of the most magical scenes and the power of music. I would really like you to mute the music and only hear the conversations. Then I would have made you see the same scene with music. It made THAT much difference. 
First of all, let's talk cinematography. I am no expert, but Don walking away from Megan's set with the beginning of this wonderful tune.. it was great. We knew that he was walking away from Megan, from his second chance, from his second life. Yes, Don also lives double life, but I like to think that song is not about that. It's about how Megan focusing on acting drifted them apart. How he got lost again. How he lived his life again and again with the same mistakes.

You only live twice, or so it seems
One life for yourself, and one for your dreams
You drift through the years and life seems tame
Till one dream appears and love is its name

Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now

The closest Don gets to honesty in S6 E12, he gets punished very hard. But before he learns his lesson, for the frst time he shows his other side to his children.

It's cloud's illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all
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Frank Sinatra - My Way

Let's not forget that these songs were great hits at that time, therefore hearing My Way from a radio diageticly is not surprising. Of course, it is also fits right to the concept. I loved the fact that Don commenting on the choice of soundtrack there, it can't be coincidence :) Than, music became non-diegetic as we get away from them. We needed that volume. 
But imagine.. You're in 60s; the radio plays My Way - a hit; and you're longing for a life without TV! Oh Peggy! It became much worse than that. 

Vanilla Fudge - You Keep Me Hangin' On

Nothing more to say here. It's there. Out in the cold. You really don't love me. You just.. keep me hanging on.
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David Bowie - Space Oddity

Another magical moment from Mad Men. Don gets lost in McCann. We know that Don is not good with change. Everytime he faced a challenge in work, he faught back: create a new agency, some solution for keeping things as they were. He got miserable when he was divorced from Betty, than when he lose his job temporarily. Now, listening a brief in McCann.. He don't belong there. Now he's traveling without any purpose. He is lost in his life. Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare..

​Buddy Holly - Everyday

Nothing good happened to Don in this episode. We are in a so different story that we can't even admit that we are near the end. Don gets beat up for a boy's mistake. Than gives him a ride to a bus stop. Then gives him his keys. Is this the Don we knew ? In fact, yes. He had this gestures now and than (when he paid Pete's share for partnership requirement). He gets off the car, the boy drives away. We see him happy and smiling. And one of the loveliest tunes of all times makes us smile, too.

These are wonderful tunes.. wonderfully used.. But I want you to leave this list with this, of course. As good as an ad can be, this is it. 

Ece Demirel